Drive Inter Racial Erotica, LQBTQ Romance
Nine Star Press
April 15, 2020
Kindle
247
Amazon
In the conservative East Texas town of Black Creek, you’re either old money or you work for them. Redmond Cole is the latter. The long hours he spends fixing fancy cars in the local garage are barely enough to support himself, let alone his sixteen-year-old half-sister, Katie. All he wants is a better life for the both of them, one that’s easy and real, but he has a secret. One that could blow up the meager existence he’s worked so hard to maintain.Red is gay.He doesn’t want to lie, especially to Katie, but Black Creek isn’t the most hospitable environment for those who are different. His secrets keep them safe. He’s all but resigned to a life in the closet when he’s propositioned by the dashing, wealthy Victor Itachi. What follows is a secret and intense sexual relationship that challenges everything Red believes about himself. When an unlikely friendship with the only out gay man in town opens Red’s eyes to new possibilities, he must make a choice: submit fully to the relative safety of Victor’s control or risk it all for a chance at real love.
REVIEW BY ULYSSES DIETZ
Member of The Paranormal Guild Review Team
I’ve read a number of m/m novels that have a plot focused on dom/sub or other BDSM themes. Where this trope manages to step outside its typical boundaries is the point where it begins to be interesting to me. Courtney Maguire manages to do that in a surprising way in “Drive.”
Redmond Cole is an auto mechanic in a small town in East Texas. He sees the world as pretty clear-cut: rich folks versus everybody else; but also straight people versus everybody else. In Red Cole’s case, the class divisions inherent in his hometown have limited his prospects, but he loves what he does, so no big deal. On the other hand, the deeply-ingrained homophobia in his world—right up to and including his military father’s—makes him feel trapped and afraid.
The arrival of the cool, elegant Victor Itachi in Red’s world pushes (or drags) him out of his closet and into a different world—one of hidden sex and a particular variation on the dom/sub world called puppy play. At almost the same time, the openly-gay (and disowned) scion of a local old-money lumber family, Sean Delaney, appears in Red’s shop, his car vandalized with homophobic graffiti.
Red is torn between these two men: the dominant allure of Victor, and the warm sincerity of Sean. Victor promises to take care of him, but keeps him a world of secrecy. Sean offers him real friendship, but at a cost of public embarrassment for daring to associate with someone notoriously “out.”
What the book is really about is Red’s journey to discovering what really matters to him. Both of the other men, Victor and Sean, have suffered at the hands of prejudiced families, as has Red. They, however, have made peace with themselves, whereas Red has not. Having repressed his gay self for so long, Red is torn.
It’s a pretty interesting dilemma that Red has to puzzle through, and while there were some significant details that I felt were not resolved adequately, ultimately the story satisfied me. Maguire’s writing is good and her characters felt three-dimensional and engaging.